Main menu

Post navigation

“New” Tolkein book, The Children of Hurin

CNN’s review of the new J.R.R. Tolkein book, edited by his son Christopher Tolkein, makes “The Children of Hurin” sound not only like a compelling read and nice addition to the Middle Earth saga, but like a wonderful labor of love.

“It is the fruit of 30 years labor by Christopher Tolkien, the author’s son, who has devoted much of his life to editing and publishing the work his father left behind. By meticulously combining and editing the many published and unpublished versions of the tale, he has produced at last a coherent, vivid and readable narrative.”

…

“Christopher Tolkien says that in reconciling the various versions of his father’s story, he added no new material, save for an occasional transition. The words, he says, are virtually all his father’s.”

Given the number of false starts and unfinished pieces which I have laying about, I hope my son is ready to spend a good portion of his adulthood getting them into publishable form.